This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Cigarette smoke — even secondhand — increases AMD risk

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Being a smoker or living with someone who smokes increases the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, according to a group of British researchers.

J.C. Khan and colleagues at the University of Cambridge compared the relationship between smoking and the risk of developing AMD in more than 700 people. There were 435 participants diagnosed with end-stage AMD and 280 participants who served as controls. All the participants were white.

There were 261 cases of choroidal neovascularization as the only manifestation of AMD and 106 cases of geographic atrophy as the only manifestation; 68 cases had a mixed phenotype with both choroidal neovascularization and geographic atrophy present in the same subject, either bilaterally or in each eye.

All subjects underwent stereoscopic color fundus photography; AMD was defined as the presence of geographic atrophy or choroidal neovascularization. A history of the participant's smoking habits was also obtained.

After comparing current and former smokers with non-smokers, the authors noted an expected risk factor associated with smoking and AMD development. “There was a strong association between AMD and pack years of cigarette smoking, the odds ratio increasing with the amount smoked,” they said. Participants with more than 40 pack years of smoking were 2.75 times more likely to develop AMD than their non-smoking counterparts. Further, people who smoked were 3.43 times more likely to develop geographic atrophy and 2.49 times more likely to develop choroidal neovascularization compared with those who did not smoke. Former smokers reduced the odds of developing AMD; former smokers of more than 20 years had comparable risk rates to those who had never smoked.

“Passive smoking exposure was associated with an increased risk of AMD in non-smokers,” the authors said.

They also said “the amount smoked is more important than whether or not someone has ever smoked.” People who do not smoke themselves but have lived for at least 5 years with a smoker also have an increased risk of AMD, they said.

“No increased risk was demonstrated for exposure to other tobacco products,” they said.

The study is published in the January issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.